A US hospital has designed a video game to help children deal with anger problems.

The aim of the game is simply to shoot passing spaceships. However – there is a twist. Players must wear a heart rate monitor clipped to their finger and if their heart starts beating too fast, they lose the ability to shoot the enemy.

In order to win the game, players must learn how to control their emotions.

Developers at Boston Children’s Hospital tested the game on two groups of nine to 17-year-olds with severe anger problems.

Both groups received standard anger management treatment programmes, but one group was asked to play Rage Control for 15 minutes at the end of the session.

Results show that after five sessions, the children who played the video game were better at controlling their heart rate than the children who just had the standard treatment.

Instant access to millions of pornographic images is just a click away for most children in this country.

An EU report last year found that around one quarter of children between nine and 16 years old had seen sexually explicit images.

Similarly, a YouGov survey from 2010 found that almost a third of 16-18 year olds had seen sexual pictures several times a month on mobile phones at school.

There is no doubt that young people have easy access to porn, what with computers, laptops and smartphones becoming commonplace in children’s own bedrooms and rucksacks. But just what effect does pornography have on young people’s understanding of sex? And what will the future look like for individuals bought up in such an ‘overtly sexualised’ world?

Policy adviser Sion Humphreys says: “Children are growing up in an overtly sexualised world and part of this includes easy access to pornography on the internet and they need...

A new report by leading mental health charity YoungMinds has claimed that teachers and GPs are seriously out of their depth when it comes to discussing self-harm with young people in the UK.

NHS figures suggest a steady rise in hospital admissions in England for self-harmers under the age of 25, indicating that more support and understanding needs to be put in place to help those affected.

22,555 young people were treated for self-harm injuries in 2001, compared with 38,000 in 2010.

The YoungMinds report compiled information from 2,500 GPs, teachers, teenagers and parents from across the UK to investigate attitudes towards self-harm.

Over half of the 200 GPs interviewed for the study felt they did not understand why someone would want to hurt themselves, while over 80% said they had not had enough training to deal with patients who self-harm.

In addition, many teachers felt more comfortable discussing drugs and sex with their...

Disability benefits are to be cut in 2013, prompting fears that disabled people will be left isolated and in debt.

The UK claims to be a world leader in rights for disabled people but money wasted on overpayments has prompted authorities to replace the current system with a ‘personal independence payment’ (PIP) by next year.

The current system, the ‘disability living allowance’ (DLA), offers two kinds of payments: one for weekly care costs and one for mobility. Under the new PIP system, more money will be given to more severely disabled people, and less money will be given to less severely disabled people. This, according to Prime Minister David Cameron, reflects the ‘right values’.

However, a survey of over 4,500 disabled people by charity campaign Hardest Hit found that 80% were afraid their benefit cuts will drive them into debt and isolation.

Despite being the biggest cause of disability in the Western world, mental ill health is still so highly stigmatised that millions of sufferers report being taunted, abused and shunned by society for their illness.

In an international study of over 1,000 sufferers living across 35 different countries, three quarters reported feeling ostracised by society. They claim that this prevents them from forming relationships, making friends and applying for jobs.

Drugs and counselling can help people suffering with depression, but only half of those interviewed received the treatment they needed.

Although many popular public figures, including Stephen Fry, tennis champion Serena Williams and singer Lana Del Rey, have been opening up about their own mental health problems, the stigma faced by the general public does not seem to have lifted.

Professor Graham Thornicroft, head of health service and population research at the Institute of Psychiatry...

Last year UK hospital admissions for people with eating disorders rose by 16% to 2,288.

More worrying still, more than 50 of those people were younger than 10 years old.

The statistics, which come from the Health and Social Care Information Centre, also showed that the biggest increase was amongst girls aged between 10 and 15, suggesting that eating disorders may be striking people at a younger age.

The question is – why is this happening?

Some blame ‘pro-anorexia sites’ and social networking for the rise in eating disorders amongst young girls. Women’s Editor Emma Barnett recently spoke about the issue on her LBC 97.3 radio show and was inundated with calls from mothers talking about how they think the Internet has increased their daughters’ levels of self-consciousness.

The culture of adding photos of ourselves to social networks like Facebook encourages us to be vain – we know that other...

You might think a few hours of aggressive iron pumping will get those work frustrations out of your system before you head home for the evening, but NHS psychologist Isabel Clarke thinks exercise just makes anger worse.

Gyms are reporting an increasing number of ‘gym rage’ incidents – people getting into heated arguments and even physical fights over seemingly trivial things.

Celebrity fitness trainer Matt Fides reports once seeing a gym-goer attacking a receptionist just for changing the music: “The guy had been listening to Gun N’ Roses but it was peak time and the Lycra bunnies were in, so the music was changed. The weightlifter was furious and stormed over to demand the music was changed back. When his demands were not met, he attacked the guy on reception,’ he said.

Psychologist Isabel Clark says people get angrier at the gym because working-out mimics the body’s stress responses. The heart rate rises,...

Last month author, career coach and Forbes contributor Kathy Caprino launched the ‘Amazing Career Project’, a campaign designed to empower female professionals in their quest to change careers.

Kathy has since been inundated with scores of replies from professional women between the ages of 30 and 55 who want help leaving unfulfilling jobs to pursue careers they hope will sufficiently challenge and motivate them.

These women report feeling exhausted and disengaged from their professional identities after years of fighting or ignoring stress and feelings of unhappiness. They believe that by changing their careers, they will be able escape these negative feelings and finally realise their full potential in life.

But can a change of career really transform these women’s lives, or do their problems run deeper than that?

Kathy says: “I can’t tell you how many professionals I’ve met (it’s in the thousands now) who have...